updated 01:25 pm EST, Tue January 15, 2008

Apple TV Take 2

Apple chief Steve Jobs today revealed a reworked version of the Apple TV media hub's user interface that is said to be greatly improved from the original, allowing users to pull more content directly from the Internet. The device can now buy music, movies, and TV shows itself, which can sync back to a home computer. It also takes advantage of Apple's new iTunes movie rental service and has the option of receiving iTunes movies in a 720p HD resolution as well as standard definition, Apple says. Owners can now also browse .Mac and Flickr photo accounts directly from the device and create photo screensavers on the fly.

Prices for content are unchanged for the same version of a given video when buying from the hub, and downloads are quick; most videos, even HD, will begin playing in under 30 seconds, Jobs says. iTunes HD rentals cost $5 for new releases and $4 for back-catalog titles. The new feature will be available as a free software update for all Apple TVs. New 40GB models with the features built-in will start at $229 and ship within two weeks from the online Apple Store, as will 160GB models at $329.

HD on AppleTV only???

Please tell me I'm reading this all wrong...

From how the announcement was structured, it sounds as if HD rentals will be restricted to the AppleTV???

I have a Mac mini in my home theater, thanks...

I'm not going to buy an additional $229 AppleTV for the "privilege" of renting HD content... I'm not *that* interested in rentals in the 1st place.. was hoping for an announcement that HD content would be made available for *purchase*...

Please tell me this is just a bad mis-structuring of the announcement... I really want to be wrong here....

re: hd on appletv only???

OMG, really, some people never have a good word to say. I have an ATV and I loved it BEFORE the MacWorld announcements. Now, I love it even more. If you're not satisfied with your current hardware, go buy an AppleTV, otherwise, just shut it.

re: qualleyiv

Disappointing

In my opinions Apple TV wont get mainstream into the living room without a DVD player preferably HD and DVR functionality. I already have all the functionality they just offered on my Xbox 360 and I get to play games as well. Okay I can't stream pictures from Flickr, but apparently the ATV can't either ;-)

re: hayesk

Sigh,

Take a deep breath and re-read my post...

My post, was a post stating that I hoped I was reading things wrong. It was expressing concern.. It was questioning the structure of how these things were being announced/reported... How the h*** is that a "rant"?

Disappointed....again

I was really hoping that along with this would be either the announcement of itunes online TV and movie purchase/rental for Australians OR a HD-DVD/Blu-ray player OR a HD TV tuner. Any one of those options would make the Apple TV a worthwhile purchase for the Aus market. There's very little incentive to buy one of these in Aus at the moment - especially as the 160GB version comes with a AUD$449 price tag.

Well...

Correction

In my previous post I incorrectly stated that the 160GB version of this is AUD$449 in Aus - that's actually the 40Gb version!. For half the money you can buy an XBOX 1st gen with the HD cables, hack it and load XBMC which can talk to your itunes lib and play all your music and video content. Oh and it can play Xbox games.... Apple have missed the mark in Aus - there needs to be some incentive to spend the AUD$579 for the 160GB version (which is ridiculous). I though Apple were keeping the pricing consistent globally - USD$229 is AUD$254 NOT AUD$449 - we're being ripped off almost AUS$200 on the base model

missing killer feature

Can't speak for the foreign markets, but I think this update is pretty good. Personally, I thought AppleTV sounded like c*** before it came out, and sounded like c*** after it came out.

What this update does, more than anything, is repurpose the AppleTV. It still sounds like c*** to me when it comes to purchasing content -- it really needs some kind of burning/backup feature. But now it's a perfectly acceptable movie rental device. No more streaming from another computer, and hd content. If I cared about watching photo slide shows, I'd say partnering with Flickr was an excellent idea.

But I think if they had one more thing, this device would change everything: TV rentals for less than 1.99. 1.99 actually isn't a bad price for this, but if I can buy an episode then I'm going to keep it, not delete it after I watch it... but then you run into storage/backup problems again.

OTOH, let me rent for less than the purchase price, and all of a sudden AppleTV isn't just a rental machine or a dvd alternative -- it's a viable cheaper alternative to cable/satellite/dvr.

I also wouldn't mind it if they made the form factor a little more in line with other TV appliances, but that's a minor issue.

Read what is written

Yes, my comment about sound was incorrect, but it was based on sloppy wording in the original report on MacNN. A microphone is a form of audio input. If it is reported that there is no audio input (as opposed to external audio input), then it is easy to surmise there is no microphone. It was an especially easy jump, since Apple failed to include a microphone (internal audio input) in the iPod touch.

For the oaf who thinks my observations were about the lack of a perfect product, I can only suggest he trying reading what was actually written.

There is most certainly a market for this product, however I suspect Apple is going to be very disappointed to discover that this device will not sell to the same crowd who loved the 12-inch PowerBook. The key issue for travelers is not thickness, it is footprint. And even more important for travelers is the ability to swap out batteries. On long flights, stays in countries with unreliable power grids, and trips into wilderness areas, a stock of pre-charged, swappable batteries is crucial. The MacBook Air is a luxury computer, not a travel computer.

The Dow was down 2.17% today, Apple was down 5.45% (it was actually down even more earlier in the day, but sprung back a little). A month ago Apple was trading at over $200, but since Expo news started to leak it is down to under $170. The market clearly isn't happy with Apple.

Existing customers have reason to be upset as well. It is now obvious that Apple's excuse for Time Machine not working with Air Disks was, to put not too fine a point on it, a lie. Clearly the feature was intentionally handicapped in order for Apple to bring their own solution, Time Capsule, to market. Many people upgraded their Airports specifically for the AirDisk feature based on their knowledge of the development of TimeMachine. Those customers have every right to be annoyed. Apple has rowed them halfway across the lake, and is now charging them twice the fee to get to the other side.

As for investors, I suspect (presuming the whole American economy doesn't take a header in the next six months) that Apple stock will rebound once analysts start to look at the growth potential of the iTV/iTunes video rental combination. The pricing structure looks good, and the solution appears upon to be platform independent, and that offers Apple the chance to significantly grow its bottom line -- assuming that offended Airport customers don't start boycotting the company the way that former AT&T Wireless customers boycott the iPhone.

Wow-Lots of angst

Well, I'm kinda surprised to see a lot of gripping about AppleTV not having a dvd player built in, I have a dvd player already. Anyways, from day one it was clear that movie rentals was the way to go for this kind of content, glad Apple finally caught on. As a result, I have ordered my AppleTV. I would have liked to have seen the AppleTV come in a little cheaper, like $199, but with all the major studios on-board tipped the scales. I don't watch cable tv, in fact I only have basic cable for the internet, so for me, this is a perfect VOD option for me.

Re: dvd

Yeah, but wouldn't it be nicer if they thing could just play DVDs, so you wouldn't have to go trudging upstairs to put in a disk, wouldn't have to worry about the network stuttering out on you, and you could also remove another device from your entertainment center?